The Proteas Women had the Australian Women on the canvas before a late Aussie batting charge (followed by another failure with the bat by the Proteas) saw them lose their final warm-up match by 51 runs.

In her first real outing since the tour to England ended in late June, Shabnim Ismail bowled Alyssa Healy for seven runs and Ashleigh Gardner for a duck in her first over of the match, leaving Australia 2-7.

Elyse Villani followed for a two-ball duck, caught Sune Luus off the bowling of Marizanne Kapp in the third over to pin Australia back to 3-8.

The Proteas Women’s bowlers continued to throttle the Aussie batters, with one run coming off the fifth over from Kapp, one from the sixth over by Ismail and four runs off over number seven, bowled by Masabata Klaas.

Beth Mooney was bowled by Sune Luus with her score on 24 off 31 balls (three fours), which brought Meg Lanning and Rachael Haynes together and they added an unbroken 92 for the fourth wicket to take Australia to a defendable 130 off their 20 overs.

Lanning’s contribution was a superb 65 off 51 balls (eight fours, one six, S/R 127.45), with Rachael Haynes backing her captain up with a well-played 29 off 27 balls (three fours).

This would have been a sobering defeat for the Proteas, although they can take heart from their bowling performance. If the batters can come to the party (and there is serious quality among their line-up), then there’s every chance they can make an impact on this tournament.

Proteas batsman Reeza Hendricks looks ahead to the 2nd ODI against Pakistan at Kingsmead in Durban as he tells the media that the side has prepared well. He says they want to bounce back from the frustration of losing the first ODI at St George’s Park.